As part of the ongoing objective of automotive manufacturers to produce high quality automobiles, every effort is made to ensure that new vehicles are quiet and operate correctly under normal operating conditions. In the field of motor vehicles, and particularly in the production of internal combustion engine assemblies, testing is normally done on a large scale basis. Testing is traditionally performed in a continuous manner on a variety of different types of engines at any one point in time at a single test facility. Test engineers and technicians often use a dressing area which allows the engines to be prepped or “dressed” prior to entering the engine test cell. As a further means of facilitating the testing process and minimizing the down time of the test room, a test operator often may use engine transport systems to expedite the preparation and delivery of the engine to the test room.
Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of high quality mechanical power sources, such as motors, engines, and other prime movers, almost invariably test the power source prior to releasing the same for sale to ensure that it performs properly and up to its rated capability. Dynamometer testing apparatuses (or “dyno” for short) of various types are used to determine the performance characteristics of motor and engine assemblies, transmissions, powertrain architectures, and of vehicles powered by such motor and engine assemblies. A dyno can be used, for example, to measure the torque and rotational speed from which power produced by an internal combustion engine can be calculated.
Engines are often tested in order to verify their performance under conditions which substantially reproduce actual working conditions. Some such conditions include extreme temperature environments. Accordingly, engine, transmission, and powertrain development activities frequently require hardware test temperatures be higher or lower than the prevailing ambient temperature. For instance, many validation test procedures require a non-ambient soak temperature prior to the initiation of a test. The majority of these procedures call for a soak period that ensures the test article and fluids (e.g., engine coolant, engine oil, transmission fluid, differential oil, intercooler cooling fluid, fuel, etc.) have reached a pre defined, stable temperature. Once the temperature is reached, the test is executed. By way of example, certain procedures involve eight hours of soak time for a 20-30 minute run time. These procedures will test hardware and provide calibration data for engine and transmission controllers.
In the state of the art, this type of environmental testing is usually done in a specially built, rigid climatic chamber or dedicated environmental test cell, built inside an engineering test facility and used specifically for that purpose. Conventional climatic test cells are large rooms which are at least partly insulated from the outside environment. Equipment to secure and support the test piece, such as a test bench or platform, is rigidly installed inside the test rooms, as is the dynamometer and any other equipment and instrumentation necessary for testing. The test rooms are also connected to ducts which remove heat generated through operation of the test assembly. Many test cells are equipped with pipes to discharge associated exhaust fumes, and supply lines to deliver needed fluids, as well as the necessary cabling for electric power supply and for the acquisition of the measurement signals.
Rigid testing facilities in current use suffer various practical drawbacks. In the first place, prior art environmental testing chambers are generally limited to a single, definitive use, which often ties up precious space and testing equipment. This, in turn, causes a considerable lengthening of the times required to carry out the tests, which reduces the overall efficiency of the testing facility. Secondly, the testing room itself creates a less than optimal working environment for operators who need to setup and break down the test property before and after soaking at extreme temperatures. Third, rigid environmental enclosures tend to be very large, and are not easily adaptable to new testing equipment, procedures, and test property configurations. Lastly, current production specialized climatic test chambers are very expensive, both in initial build and setup as well as maintenance costs.